Life as we knew it
by McAwsome
Summary: Everyone's heard the rumors about 2012, but nobody really suspected that it would happen. Nobody, that is, except for Rachel. Now, she must lead the Glee club in fighting off hoards flesh-craving zombies. Will the kids survive? Eventual Puckleberry!
1. The End?

**Nobody knows how Nostradamus and the Mayans managed to predict the zombie apocalypse of 2012, but the Gleeks are sure glad Rachel listened.**

**Chapter One **

**Disclaimer I don't own Glee.**

**Authors Note**: As far as I'm concerned, the characters in the show are currently in their sophomore year. I think I read somewhere that they're 16. I think I was a sophomore when I was 16, so I'm gonna go with that. I could be wrong though, and if that happens to be the case, just ignore the inaccuracies and enjoy the zombie apocalypse.

For the sake of this story, the kids are seniors during the 2012-2013 school year, and Kurt and Blaine have transferred to McKinley.

**The End**

When Carol and Burt told their son's that the two of them had decided to finally take the honeymoon they'd missed out on two years ago when they'd exchanged vows, the boys were ecstatic.

Even while they were swearing up and down that they would be responsible, well-behaved young adults while their parents were away, the wheels in their minds were already turning as they planned the massive party they would throw the moment their parental units left for the airport.

"This is going to be EPIC," Finn told Kurt as the two prepared for the event by putting out food and hiding the valuables.

"I know. Can you believe our luck? We have this house entirely to ourselves for the rest of the year!"

The date was December 20, 2012.

"Is Puck getting the booze?" Finn shouted from the kitchen where he was examining the fridge to see if there was anything he could throw out so they would have more space.

"Of course," Kurt snorted, putting all of the lamps into the linen closet, and starting to rearrange the furniture in the living room. "He also said something about meatballs. Have you ordered the pizza yet?"

"Yep, sure did." Finn shouted, "Are you a big fan of Mom's tofu salad?"

"Yuck," Kurt grimaced. Finn tossed it, along with what was probably a salad with brown iceberg lettuce, and a package of recently out-of-date goat cheese.

Once they got the house ready, the two were able to sit down and relax for a few minutes since they'd already cleaned up the basement.

Finn's girlfriend Quinn was the first to arrive. She quickly made herself at home by tossing her coat into the floor and leaping into Finn's awaiting arms. The two had gotten back together last year after Sam had spent football season on the bench waiting for his doctor to get back to him about a suspected heart murmur. Banned from athletics, the blonde Gleek had gotten fat, and his cheerleader girlfriend had slowly made her way back to Finn. Oh, and Sam's results had comeback negative the week after football season. For some reason, nobody had ever questioned this.

Kurt suspected that Quinn would be a permanent fixture for the next few weeks.

Blaine showed up a few minutes after 'the 'inn's' retreated to the basement to 'get reacquainted' after the two long days they'd been on Christmas vacation.

As much hope as Kurt had originally had for a relationship with this boy, they'd been in close proximity to each other for almost two years now and had yet to do more than hug, even after both of them had transferred back to McKinley at the beginning of this year. Their friends swore it was totally obvious that they were crazy in love with each other, and that the two of them were the only ones who couldn't see it. It was pretty frustrating.

"Hey," Blaine said when Kurt opened the door, "how's your break going?"

"Well," Kurt laughed, "these last two days have been fantastic."

Blaine's face reddened visibly, having apparently also forgotten that they'd only been on break for two days so far. Was this going to be a trend?

Nope.

Puckerman arrived with Brittany, Santana, and the alcohol. It was hard to tell which of these things the guy was more excited about, though Kurt would put his money on the alcohol.

Tina, Mike, Artie and Mercedes all came as a group.

"Who wants to bet Berry doesn't show?" Mercedes asked once they were all settled in the living room.

"It'll probably be more fun without her," Artie commented, slightly hopeful that the girl wouldn't come.

"Rachel's been pretty cool lately," Puck commented, "maybe you guys should cut her some slack."

"True," Tina agreed, "I got a solo last week, and she barely noticed."

"That was weird," Mercedes said, "I thought she was sick or something."

There was another knock at the door.

"Guess she came after all," Kurt sighed, getting up to answer the door since Finn had yet to emerge from the basement.

Rachel entered the house wearing combat boots, skinny jeans, a loose white V-neck, and a leather jacket. She looked suspiciously like the girl from Zombieland, and was carrying a black duffle bag that looked large enough for at least half of the Glee Club to fit into.

"Sweet!" Puck shouted, racing to greet her, "Berry brought more booze!"

"Chill, Puck," Rachel said, rolling her eyes at the boy's excitement. She pulled a six-pack out of her purse and handed it to him. "There. Enjoy."

"So what's in the bag?" Blaine asked, eyeing the black duffle bag suspiciously.

"Supplies," Rachel answered vaguely, snatching one of her beers back from Puck. She dropped her bag in a corner and joined the rest of the group where they sat in a large circle in the middle of the living room floor. Nobody else questioned her.

And so the party began.

It was a good party. Everyone had fun, laughed a lot, and drank a little too much.

There were some low points whenever someone would point out that they'd all be graduating in about five months, but those didn't happen much.

Then, at exactly 12:21am on the morning of December 21, 2012, the electricity went out and everyone screamed.

"Calm down!" Rachel commanded, slowly making her way across the room, "everyone stay exactly where you are."

When she reached her bag, she opened one of the pockets and pulled out a couple of flashlights.

"Is everyone alright?" She asked, turning one of the flashlights on her friends, "was there anybody in the basement?"

Most of the group had consumed too much alcohol to understand the question.

"Finn and Quinn," Blaine said finally. Rachel handed him one of the flashlights and told him to go check on them.

"We need to stick together," she told her friends as she marched over to the window, made sure it was securely latched, and looked out, "the power is off all down the street."

By the time Blaine returned with Finn and Quinn, Rachel had already set the rest of the group to work making sure that all of the doors and windows in the house were locked, and she herself had dug a battery operated radio out of her bag, and was trying to find a station that would tell them how extensive the blackout was. Suddenly the static went away as Rachel found one.

"…_folks, we here at WKLX fear that this could be the end of the world. We don't know what that means yet, but this will be our last broadcast. Stay safe."_

**Authors note****: The end of the world? Oh snap. What's going to happen next? Well that sure doesn't sound good. Will our favorite Gleeks survive? You're going to have to review and keep reading to find out!**

**Also, updates might take a while, my computer got a virus while I was doing some research about how to survive the zombie apocalypse, and now I can't open any of the programs, including microsoft word where all of my stories are saved. So lets all hope I can get it fixed without losing all of my files! **

**Reviews totally brighten my day, so bunches of them would be awesome right now.**

**Sorry about the long, rambling Authors note. **

**Peace Out!**


	2. Assessing the Damage

**Chapter Two**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.**

**Assessing the Damage**

Rachel kept fiddling with her radio, trying to find a station that was still broadcasting. Of course she understood the need for people to be at home with their families during a time like this, but people also deserved to know what was going on.

"Damn," She muttered as she turned the dial slowly, hoping to catch even a little bit of information. She'd already checked the cellphones of everyone present, and nobody had signal. She was beginning to fear that the only way she'd ever know anything would be to leave the house and go find out for herself.

"Anything?" Blaine asked, sitting down beside her after he'd gotten a fire started in the fireplace. The others were sprawled across the living room floor sleeping off their hangovers.

"It's dead," Rachel sighed, turning off her flashlight since her eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness, and she now had the glow of the fireplace to help her see what she was doing. "Do you think you can get Kurt's house key? I need to know what's happening out there."

"No," Blaine told her firmly.

Rachel understood that he was saying she shouldn't go, not that he couldn't get the keys.

"Blaine, I'm sure you don't know this about me, but I've been preparing for this day my entire life," Rachel told him, "My dad's heard rumors that something huge was going to happen on this date, and they made sure I would be able to take care of myself. I need to know what I'm fighting here."

Blaine looked skeptical, but he found Kurt's keys for her.

"One condition," he said, holding the keys just out of her reach.

"What?" Rachel huffed in annoyance.

"I'm coming with you."

Rachel hesitated. It was one thing for her to leave the relative safety of the house; she knew how to defend herself, and was fully aware that nobody really liked her. It was something totally different to put someone else's life in danger. She'd never been in a position like this before, and she didn't particularly like it.

"Come on," Blaine told her, "you know there's safety in numbers."

Hoping she wouldn't regret it later, Rachel agreed.

"Fine," she said, pulling a shotgun out of her bag and tossing him a baseball bat, "but we're doing this my way."

As Rachel was closing the door, she took a second to glance around the room at her sleeping friends. She knew that a lot of them disliked her because of the way she usually acted, but she still considered them family, and she didn't want anything to happen to them.

'This shouldn't take long,' she thought to herself as she locked the house and walked purposefully toward her car.

"See if you can find a radio station," she instructed Blaine as she started the car.

Blaine resisted the urge to reply say 'yes ma'am'. Yes, Rachel could be bossy, but for once he figured it would be a good idea to listen to her; she did seem to have an idea of what was happening.

"I think the blackout might be global," she said, mostly to herself, as they drove along.

It was pretty creepy.

It wasn't just the houses that had no power. It was four in the morning, people were still asleep. Fast food restaurants, all-night service stations, even street lights were out. It looked as though even the back-up generators were out.

"My God," Blaine whispered as Rachel drove past a dark hospital. "This thing is only beginning, isn't it?"

"That's what I was afraid of," Rachel sighed. "I know you thought I was exaggerating when the electricity went out back at the house, I wasn't very worried about any of it until the radio stations started shutting down. I think we're in trouble, Blaine."

"We should get back to the house." Blaine suggested as they crossed into the next county.

"There's one more place I want to go," Rachel told him, turning her car around and heading back into town.

She drove in silence. She'd been more focused on preparing herself for the end of the world this year than she had on Glee club, so she hardly knew the guy sitting next to her nervously clutching a baseball bat.

About an hour later, Rachel pulled into the parking lot of a police station.

"Come on," she said, as she got out of the car, "and leave the baseball bat. I don't trust these guys, but they won't take too kindly to us going in armed."

The lady behind the desk glared murderously when they walked it. It appeared that she'd had a rough night, and wasn't interested in being helpful. When Blaine's charming smile didn't win her over immediately, Rachel pushed past him and demanded to see someone who could help them.

The woman flat out refused.

So Rachel started yelling.

Blaine watched in amusement at the look on the receptionists face, and was pleased to see the Chief of Police himself come out to address the disturbance.

Obviously the man certainly wasn't expecting to have to deal with a teenage girl.

"Nice of you to join us," Rachel greeted him pleasantly. "My friend and I just want to ask you a few questions about this blackout, if that's alright with you."

Blaine nodded as the Chief glanced over at him.

The receptionist now looked traumatized and was positively shaking behind her desk.

"I suppose that would be okay," sighed the Chief, whose nametag read Johnson, "why don't you two step into my office."

Rachel smiled sweetly at the receptionist as she did exactly that.

**Authors Note**: **I finally got my computer fixed (for now), so here's a new chapter. Please review and tell me what you think about the story so far. **

**Also, I realize Rachel said 'we all need to stick together' in the first chapter, and then in this one she and Blaine leave to find out what's happening. She really didn't want to do that, and if the stupid radio had worked, she wouldn't have had to. Wouldn't it suck to be in her position though? She knows that something bad was supposed to happen, but she has no idea what. Anyway, who's excited to find out what happens? Review!**

**Next chapter, everyone else regains consciousness!**

**Peace Out!**


	3. Over Our Heads?

**Chapter Three**

**Over Our Heads**

"The sun should have come up two hours ago," Kurt sighed, "I have a bad feeling about this. Does anybody's cellphone work?"

"Nope," sighed Quinn, giving the boy a sympathetic glance. "I'm sure Blaine's fine."

"Yeah Bro," Finn agreed, putting an arm around his step-brother, "he and Rachel probably just went to find out what was going on. You know they never drink quite as much as the rest of us."

"I have an idea," Mercedes said, "I know everyone's worried about Blaine, and the fact that this power outage is totally cramping our style, so let's do something to get our minds off of it for a while."

"What did you have in mind?" asked Puck.

"We could gather supplies," Mercedes suggested, "you know, find flashlights, candles, more firewood, and stuff to keep warm until the electricity comes back on."

"Sounds like a good idea," Quinn said with a grin. Everyone besides Santana, who was still sleeping, agreed and started moving around.

This kept them so occupied, that none of them noticed the passage of time until it was noon and their stomachs began to growl.

"You guys," Mercedes announced, "I'm usually against the eating of foods which haven't been properly refrigerated, but who's up for cold pizza?"

This was when Rachel and Blaine arrived looking a bit worse for wear.

Kurt launched himself at the other boy the instant he walked in. Somehow Blaine managed to hold onto both Kurt and his baseball bat.

"Would one of you just make a move already?" Rachel said, sighing as she squeezed past the non-couple's tearful reunion. She then addressed the rest of the group, "well guys, it's the end of the world."

As everyone gaped at her, she dropped a reusable grocery bag full of junk food on the table.

"How about you guys eat while I talk," Rachel suggested, taking a seat. No one asked where she'd gotten the food, or mentioned the shotgun that was slung over her shoulder. Slowly they all found something to eat, and Rachel shared what she and Blaine had learned at the Police station.

"Zombies?" Santana asked skeptically, "you've got to be shitting us, Berry. This is just to cliché."

Rachel rolled her eyes, she knew it was hard to believe.

"Assuming that the zombie thing is legit, how does that explain this blackout?" Quinn asked, nibbling on a Cheeto.

"Berry, did you and Anderson rob a convenience store?" Puck asked, looking at her with respect.

"Police Chief Johnson said that the zombie thing started about four years ago when some Russian scientists were doing a clinical trial with a vaccine that was supposed to cure AIDS, and somehow turned all the participants into zombies. Because of the delayed reaction time, nobody realized what was happening until it was too late, the trial was considered a failure and all of the participants were released. It was only when the scientists themselves began to display symptoms that anyone figured it out." Rachel paused for a moment and reached for a Snickers bar. "So now we have Zombie AIDS. Creative name, right? It's transmitted like regular AIDS, but it's more contagious. You can't tell who has it until it's full blown, and it can be transmitted through any exchange of body fluids. We're talking sex, blood, vomit, urine, poop, even saliva. And Puckerman, I'll neither confirm, nor deny that Blaine and I robbed an abandoned convenience store."

"Too bad," Puck said, "because that would be totally badassed."

"Seriously?" Quinn sighed, rolling her eyes a Puck, "and you still haven't answered my question, Rachel."

"And why didn't the sun come up this morning?" Kurt asked.

"There was a massive outbreak of Zombie AIDS last week at the Universal Electric Company Convention. A member of every electric company in the world was in attendance, and it's believed that the world's population of electricians has officially been zombified," Blaine answered while Rachel chewed up a bite of her Snickers. "We ran into some of these zombies outside of the convenience store."

"Neither of us were bitten," Rachel announced before anyone could asked next obvious question. "Zombie AIDS is highly contagious through body fluids during the period of time between transmission and when the disease becomes full blown. Once someone becomes a full blown zombie, it can only be transmitted through a bite. As for the sun not coming up, nobody knows. We're just assuming it's a sign of dark days to come."

"So what do we do?" Mercedes asked faintly. She wasn't entirely sure she believed what Rachel was saying, but the blood on Blaine's baseball bat was pretty legit.

"Out-live them," Rachel sighed, placing a hand on her shotgun. "Let me put this in simple terms; shit is about to get real."

The kids fell into silence, each reflecting on life as they knew it, and wondering just how different everything had just become.

After lunch, Rachel examined the pile of supplies her friends had gathered while she and Blaine had been out. They had blankets, candles, flashlights, sleeping bags, firewood and extra coats. She sighed. This was all good for holing up in the house and trying to survive a blizzard, but she wasn't sure how much use it would be during an apocalypse.

"What, no guns?" Blaine asked, startling her as he came up beside her. "What are you thinking?"

"That we might be completely in over our heads here." Rachel suggested, "you saw how strong those things were."

"Yeah," he agreed, "the zombies are strong, but I think we can survive it."

Rachel wasn't sure. Even while she'd been training for this, she hadn't completely believed that it would even happen.

"I'll go tell everyone to search for weapons," Blaine said, "why don't you try to get some rest. I have a feeling that it's going to be hard to come by pretty soon."

Rachel smiled at him gratefully. She was pretty tired.

As she lay down on the couch opposite Santana, who had gone back to sleep after eating, she felt hopeful.

She should have known better.

**Author's Note**:** Hey guys, hope everyone is enjoying this. Anyone want to guess who our first zombie is going to be? Who would you guys like to see come in as a zombie? Where would you go in the case of a zombie apocalypse? Feed back makes me happy, so please please please review (excessive exclaimation points)!**

**Peace Out!**


	4. Zombies!

**Chapter four**

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine.**

**Zombies!**

Puck was in the basement looking for something to use as a weapon when he heard Quinn screaming upstairs.

He grabbed the item closest to him without bothering to see what it was, and raced to her aid. What he saw made him stop in his tracks and drop Kurt's hamster.

Santana had Quinn in a choke hold and looked slightly insane. Her hair was falling out, one of her eyes was bulging as though it was about to pop out, and she was drooling quite a lot.

"I guess Rachel was right about the zombies," Kurt deadpanned, "fan-fucking-tastic."

At the word 'zombies' Rachel bolted upright on the couch and grabbed her shotgun.

"Zombies?" she demanded, "where?"

Puck just pointed.

"I'm sorry, you guys," Rachel said, raising the gun to her shoulder. She fired two shots into Santana's skull, and girl fell to the ground, her arms detached and remained wrapped around Quinn's neck.

"This shit is insane." Finn whispered hoarsely.

"That thing wasn't Santana," Rachel said quietly, helping Quinn get the detached pair of arms off of her neck, "she wasn't in there anymore."

In soon as Quinn was released from Santana's arms, she rushed into Finn's arms and started crying.

Rachel looked around the room and noticed that everyone had paired up. Quinn and Finn, Kurt and Blaine, Artie and Brittany, Tina and Mike, everyone had a shoulder to cry on.

Rachel left them too it.

She headed down to the basement to help Puck look for weapons.

"That was intense," he said hoarsely as she entered. Rachel thought maybe he'd been crying too.

"Yeah," Rachel sighed, resisting the urge to have a good cry herself, "Puck, I'm really sorry about Santana."

"I heard what you said earlier," he replied with a sniff, "you put her out of her misery. She wasn't in there anymore, was she?"

"No," Rachel sighed, "but I still felt like I was shooting my friend."

"Hey, you did what you had to do," Puck put his arm around the girl and pulled her into a hug, "that's pretty badassed."

Rachel stood there for a moment, feeling temporarily comforted by the weight of his arms around her. Then her survival instincts kicked in and ruined the moment. She actually mourned its loss.

"Okay," she said, pulling out of the hug, "have you found anything that could be used as a weapon?"

"I grabbed Kurt's hamster to defend Quinn from the zombified Santana," Puck answered.

"Then I'll take that as a no," Rachel sighed, "look for something swingable, preferably heavy and blunt or sharp and pointy. Maybe a baseball bat, I'm sure Finn has a couple of those."

So they spread out and searched, eventually finding six baseball bats, a pitchfork, two tire irons and two sharp steel rods. Then the pair collected their loot and hauled it upstairs.

"Guys, I know you're all upset over Santana. You should be. She was our friend." Rachel addressed the group as she dropped the pile of weapons in the middle of the living room floor, "but now you know what we're up against. We also know that she had to have been infected by somebody at school, so there are zombies in Lima. One of us could be next."

"What happened to Finn and Blaine?" Puck asked, looking around at the group gathered in the living room. Everyone was still paired off, but now Kurt and Quinn were clinging tightly to each other.

"They said they wanted to check the garage for objects we could use as weapons," Brittany said in a tiny voice.

Everyone looked at the blonde cheerleader. She'd been so quiet that everyone but Artie had forgotten she was even there. Suddenly everyone had a very unpleasant thought.

"Um, Britt?" Artie asked quietly, "have you and Santana made out recently?"

"I don't remember," Brittany answered, starting to look terrified, "You don't think I'm going to become one of those things that possessed Santana and tried to eat Quinn, do you?"

"No, sweetie," Artie told his girlfriend in a soothing voice, though the look on his face clearly read 'oh shit.'

"Theoretically, if somebody made out with a zombie, would that person definitely become one too?" Puck asked nervously.

"Not necessarily," Rachel answered, quickly recognizing that the question wasn't theoretical at all. "Theoretically, if somebody suspected that they could potentially have been infected, I would want to watch them for a few days."

"Santana got really tired right around the end," Tina spoke hesitantly, "She told me last night that she'd been asleep for most of the two days we've been out of school, and she was the first to fall asleep during the party. That isn't like her."

"Okay everyone," Kurt announced, "remember that supreme exhaustion is a sign of imminent zombification."

"Or that someone hasn't slept recently," Rachel muttered to Puck, yawning to emphasize. Puck snorted with laughter. Kurt glared at the two of them.

"I'm not sure we should start jumping to those conclusions just yet," Mercedes agreed, yawning after she spoke as well.

"How long ago did Blaine and Finn go out to the garage?" Rachel asked the group.

"Um," Mercedes looked at her watch, "about an hour, why?"

Rachel swore under her breath and went after them. Puck grabbed a baseball bat and went after her.

In the garage, Finn and Blaine were locked in battle with seven zombified football players. The two were currently holding their own because zombies are slow and stupid, but they're also super strong. Finn was waving around a chainsaw, and Blaine was beating the zombies off with a tire iron.

When Rachel and Puck entered, two of the zombies turned their attention on them. Rachel took one out immediately with two shots to the head. The other grabbed her from behind and apparently a swift kick to the groin is not effective on zombies.

So while Rachel kicked at the zombie holding her, Puck swung his baseball bat at its head. It dropped her.

"Go for their heads!" He shouted to Blaine who was fending off three zombies at once. Once Finn decapitated the zombie he was fighting, he turned his attention to helping Blaine with his.

Rachel took a shot at the zombie Puck had hit in the head. It fell as quickly as the others had, but shooting it again made her feel better. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a zombie attempting to blindside her, unfortunately, it was a zombified football player who hadn't been very smart in the first place. It seemed as though this trait had been intensified with his transformation, because his attempted blindside was very visible. Rachel swung back with the butt of her shotgun and hit him in the knee. She then had a second to move away from him and line up her shot.

While she was taking out this zombie; Finn, Puck, and Blaine were finishing off the two that remained.

"There has got to be a more efficient way of doing this," Blaine sighed grimacing as he lowered his tire iron and rubbed his shoulder.

"There is," Finn said with a grin, heading over to a locked cabinet hidden behind some junk in the back of the garage. "We just got ambushed before I was able to unlock my step-dad's gun cabinet."

"Sweet," Puck grinned, grabbing a Wal-Mart bag and collecting the bullets. Then he handed them to Rachel. "Until we know for sure that I won't become one those things, I don't think I need to be trusted with dangerous weaponry."

"That's very responsible of you, Puckerman," Rachel smiled as she took the bag of bullets. Addressing Finn and Blaine, who were gaping at the two, "he made out with Santana. We're just taking precautions."

As the group headed back into the house, Puck pulled Rachel to the side.

"If I do become one of those things," he told her, "promise you won't let me be one for long."

"Of course," Rachel said quietly, fully aware of what he was asking her to do. "I promise. Could you do the same for me?"

"Absolutely."

**Author's Note: So yeah, there's a little bit of action and violence in this chapter. It was kind of fun to write though, so expect a lot more zombie violence to come. I already have an idea about who our next main character turned zombie is going to be, but I'm curious to know who you think it should be. This story is so much fun to write, and reading your reviews and getting all of the notifications encourages me to keep putting the chapters out quickly. So, review and tell me what you think of it so far. Also, do you think I should put some of the adults in? I have some ideas there too, but I haven't really decided on anything yet. So yeah, review review review (perhaps if I type it three times people will obey the command?)**

**Peace Out!**


	5. Rain of Toads?

**Chapter Five**

**Rain of Toads?**

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine.**

A blood curdling scream tore through the silence that seemed to have fallen over the entire town. Puck and Rachel glanced at each other, and then raced back into the house.

Inside, advancing slowly on the terrified glee club were three zombies nobody seemed to recognize. One looked as though it had been run over by a semi, while another's eye had fallen out and was currently being nibbled on by Kurt's pet hamster.

"The couch!" Rachel shouted, not thrilled by the aspect of opening fire on the zombies with this many people in the room. Her aim was good, but she was perfectly aware that accidents happened, and felt that there had been enough tragedy today.

Surprisingly, it was Quinn and Brittany who had the presence of mind to turn the large couch over so that it would provide enough cover for everyone to hide behind.

Finn, now armed with a handgun, took out the zombie closest to him, splattering blood and guts all over everything in range, and then shot the hamster just to be safe. Rachel and Puck killed the other two.

"Did you have to shoot Mr. Wiggles?" Kurt asked, mostly just to hear his own voice and break the silence.

"Dude," Finn defended his decision, "He ate the zombie's eyeball!"

"It was probably okay, Finn," Rachel said mildly, flicking an unidentified peice of zombie off of her shoulder, "the eyeball did fall out of the zombie, so it might not have been infected. Though, I'm glad you didn't take any chances."

"I don't think we should stay here," Blaine told the group, eyeing the four bodies in the room, "It seems like there is a ridiculously large number of zombies in Lima."

"I agree with you, but where can we go?" Quinn said, her voice louder and higher pitched than usual, "There must be zombies everywhere by now."

"Think about every zombie movie we've ever seen," Kurt suggested. He listened for a moment as the suggestions began to come. "Okay, now rule all of those out. What have we got left?"

"I think our best bet is to keep moving," Puck said after a moment. "But we need to stick together."

"I have a really big van," Mike spoke up.

"He does," Tina agreed eagerly, "you know those vans hippies are always smoking pot out of in the movies? With the beaded curtains and psychedelic paint jobs?"

"You guys," Artie spoke up for the first time in a while, "I know it's been done before, but maybe raiding the mall wouldn't be such a bad idea. I mean, they have a huge sporting goods store, and I'm pretty sure that we didn't come up with enough tents and winter clothing to go around. "

Rachel agreed with Artie that they needed more supplies, but she wasn't sure going to the mall was a good idea. Because of the movie _Dawn of the Dead_, Rachel was pretty sure that the mall was the first place people would go in case of a zombie attack. Either that, or perhaps they'd run into zombie's who had favored horror films during their lives. Of course, they couldn't go to Wal-Mart either. However, she couldn't really think a better plan. She was also beginning to think that her fathers hadn't prepared her quite as well as she'd thought. Shouldn't they have planned out a place to meet in case they got separated during the zombie takeover?

"I like malls," Brittany clapped her hands excitedly. It was hard not to smile at the peppy cheerleader; her cheerful attitude was like a breath of fresh air.

No one came up with a better plan, so the kids decided to go with it.

Over the next two days they packed, planned, and prepared for the challenges they would face on the way. The dead zombies in the living room made everything seem more urgent.

Rachel attempted to teach them the basics of zombie slaying. Mike, Finn and Blaine seemed to be naturals at this, while Puck struggled with his aim, they were afraid to give Brittany a gun, and Kurt and Quinn seemed disinterested. Rachel herself found that her shotgun wasn't the best weapon for zombie battle, since in her recent dealings precision was key. She switched to one of Kurt's dad's hunting rifles that had a scope on it.

Nobody was one hundred percent sure that their plan was a good one, and they were all worried about their families. There still wasn't any phone service, and none of their parents had attempted to contact them. The kids had no choice but to assume the worst, or naively assume that everything was fine. Still, they all tried to contact their parents multiple times a day, hoping that their assumptions were wrong.

"We should do something with these bodies," Blaine quietly told Rachel as the rest of the group went about gathering their supplies and starting to load Mike's van.

Rachel nodded, and motioned for him to grab the feet of one of the unidentified zombies while she tied a plastic bag around its head so it couldn't drool on her or snap it's mouth closed on her like a dead snake, and grabbed the shoulders. Together they began to haul the zombies outside. Puck, Mike and Finn set to work digging a big hole in the backyard, and tossing the three zombies in the house, plus the seven in the garage into it.

It was pretty easy to forget that the unidentified zombies had once been living humans because the Glee Kid's hadn't known them as anything but zombies. The zombified football players caused some emotions in Puck, Finn and Mike because they'd been close to some of them. Most of the other kid's knew them only through vague, slushy-stained memories. Santana however, was hard to bury. Even though she'd never really been nice to any of them and they all considered her to be a bitch, she'd been one of them. An outcast because of the way she treated people, decisions she'd made reguarding sex, and the fact that she was a member of Glee. In an odd way, she'd been perfect for the club. They had memories of her.

"I feel like someone should say something," Quinn said, absentmindedly touching the bruises on her neck as Blaine and Rachel gently laid Santana's body on top of the pile. "She was our friend, and we knew some of the other's too."

"Santana was a great kisser," Brittany offered sadly, "this really sucks."

Artie reached for his girlfriend's hand.

"She was an amazing singer," Rachel added, not taking her eyes off the girl in the grave as though some how the words would reach her.

The kids were silent for a moment, and then the guys began to shovel dirt back into the hole.

"Our first casualties," Puck said solemnly, "all we can do now is remember them."

Everyone was silent as they piled into the van and headed for the mall.

The drive over was eerie, it was as though everything had just stopped. They didn't meet very many other vehicles on the road, and most businesses had been abandoned.

"I guess when the apocalypse comes to town, everyone else clears out," Mercedes commented as she stared out the window of the van.

"Well, you have to remember that a lot of people were assuming that the world would end in 2012," Artie sighed, "you know, because Nostradamus and the Mayans predicted it."

Quinn was about to say something about how people who believe that stuff were idiots, when something hit the roof of the van.

'What the hell?' Rachel wondered as something heavy hit the windshield.

"Oh My God," Tina whispered in the front seat.

"Hell to the naw!" Mercedes shrieked as something green splattered against her window."

"First zombies, and now it's raining toads," Kurt deadpanned, "as I've said before, fan-fucking-tastic."

"I second that," Mike agreed as he turned on his windshield wipers to clear off some of the blood.

'Oh shit,' Puck though as he caught sight of the look on Rachel's face. The girl looked terrified. Obviously this was something she hadn't counted on either. It was almost funny that someone who could kill zombies like it was nobody's business could still be freaked out by some falling toads.

"Poor froggies," Brittany whispered in horror.

Suddenly Tina screamed, and then there was an impact that threw all of the kids back against their seats as the van began to spin out of control.

**Authors Note: Hey guys, sorry it's taken me so long to update, my computer got another virus. I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter, it's mostly filler and some of it is pretty out there…even for a zombie fic, but I hope it's enjoyable anyway. Next chapter, things get crazy! I have some great ideas for this, so please keep reading. Also, this story is officially my most alerted story ever. You guys rock. Please keep reviewing and telling me what you think, I really appreciate it. **

**Peace Out!**


	6. Mauled

**Chapter Six**

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine.**

**Mauled.**

It was hard not to scream as the van spun out of control on the highway. Luckily there weren't many vehicles out, so it didn't pose a threat to any passersby. A lot of them were crying by the time Mike regained control of the van. At this point it had veered into the other lane and was now facing the opposite direction. The windshield was covered in blood where it had been hit by the rain of toads.

"Is everyone alright?" Finn asked in a shaky voice, holding Quinn to his chest and glancing around at the rest of his friends.

"What does whiplash feel like?" Mercedes asked, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Could I get some help, please?" Artie had somehow fallen out of his seat and was now lying in the floor beneath the backseat.

While Blaine and Kurt grabbed Artie by the armpits and hauled him back into the seat, Rachel undid her seatbelt and leaned over the seat to talk to Mike and Tina.

"Did you see what we hit?" she asked, looking, but unable to see through the frog-blood splattered windshield.

Tina didn't say anything, but Mike looked a little green.

"I think it was a person," he said quietly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't see him in front of the van until it was too late. I tried to stop, but we hit him."

"It's not your fault," Rachel assured Mike, her hand already on the door handle, "what kind of an idiot wanders onto the highway during an apocalyptic rain of toads? I'm going to see if he's okay."

"What if it's a…" Puck had overheard Mike and Rachel's conversation. His words were cut off by the car door slamming. "…zombie?"

He sighed and opened the car door a crack so that Rachel could jump back in in a hurry if anything went wrong. As he was doing this, he heard a gunshot, and then the door flew out of his hands as Rachel barreled through it.

"Zombie," She informed them all, attempting to wipe a splatter of blood off of her forehead, but smearing it instead. "So, does the van still work?"

As if to answer the question, Mike started the van.

"Fantastic," Rachel sighed, slouching back against the seat in annoyance. She swatted at Kurt as he tried to wipe the blood off of her face using some spit and his finger.

"Someone's cranky," Kurt murmured to Mercedes he returned to his seat.

The rest of the drive to the mall went by uneventfully, the raining toads quickly fading in to the background and becoming an inconvenience rather than a horrifying apocalyptic event.

Rachel was deep in thought as she stared out the window. It was weird to think that life had been relatively normal just days ago. Now she was in a van with all of her friends preparing to rob an abandoned mall in order to survive not only a zombie epidemic, but apparently the apocalypse as well. She'd thought the zombies were the apocalypse, but the world just kept throwing more weirdness her way.

She supposed she should have expected it. She'd been prepared for the end of the world, whether it be by flesh-eating zombies, or by hellfire and brimstone. She'd always assumed it would be one or the other. Now it seemed she was going to have to adjust her thinking a little bit.

No problem.

She only hoped she knew what she was doing.

Mike parked the van in the handicap spot closest to the mall's main entrance.

"I know I keep saying that we all need to stick together," Rachel told the group as they looked to her for instructions. She was surprised how willing they all were to follow her leadership, since they fought nearly everything she'd tried to do in glee. She hoped she could help them survive. "but this time it will be more efficient to split up. Mercedes, Kurt, Artie and Quinn will go collect clothing and other personal items we'll need. Puck, Finn, Blaine and I will go raid the sporting good's store; and Mike, Tina and Brittany will stay with the van and make sure we don't come back to find an undead surprise inside. Any questions?"

She shouldn't have asked. Immediately chaos broke out as everyone started clamoring to know why they couldn't go with their friends and significant others.

The truth was; Finn and Quinn were nearly useless when they were together, but she knew that Finn was good with a handgun and sending Kurt and Quinn for clothing would be the perfect mix of practicality and flamboyance.

Brittany was snoring in the backseat and waking her up seemed pointless.

If she'd grouped Kurt with Blaine, she'd have had to put Mercedes in the group as well.

She also wanted to keep an eye on Puck. He hadn't shown any signs of becoming a zombie yet, but she intended to honor her promise in the case that he did.

There really was no way to have even groups and make everyone happy, so she hadn't even tried.

"The goal is to go in, get what we need, and get out quickly," Rachel explained to the group, "so the faster we get this done, the sooner we'll be able to meet back up."

After that she stood awkwardly for a moment as the couples, including Kurt and Blaine who weren't technically a couple, hugged each other as though they'd never get to be together again.

It was hard being single when everyone else had someone to hold on to.

"We should get going," Puck declared, apparently having the same thoughts as Rachel, "let's get this done."

"Everyone be careful," Rachel told her friends as they prepared to split up.

So, the groups got armed, and headed inside.

The glass door had already been broken through, and the mall had been looted pretty heavily.

* * *

Rachel, Puck, Finn and Blaine were making their way towards Camping World, when they heard a woman screaming in Sheets N Things. Being the heroes of this story, the four of them rushed to see what the matter was.

"Hello?" Finn called as they entered the store, "Ma'am? Are you okay?"

A scream came from the far corner, and they ran towards it. There, with three zombies advancing on her crouched form, was Terri Schuester.

"Don't come any closer!" she yelled to the kids, "these are zombies!"

"Mrs. Schuester?" Puck asked, as though this were a chance meeting rather than a rescue attempt.

Rachel and Blaine took the opportunity to shoot at two of the zombies. They took them out without much of a hassle, but apparently the third zombie was a feisty little bastard. It rushed at Puck and Finn who were just standing around like a pair of idiots.

"Damn," Finn croaked from his position in the zombie's headlock. He strained his neck to keep it out of reach of the zombie's mouth.

"Don't let it bite you!" Puck reminded his friend.

"No shit," Finn snarled.

"Stop moving," Terri shouted in annoyance, now pointing a pink handgun at the zombie, "I can't get a clear shot."

Finn wasn't sure what was more shocking; the fact the Mrs. Schuester had a gun, or the fact that it was pink. Either way, it surprised him enough to listen to her. she fired a shot and the zombie released him.

"Nice going Mrs. Schuester," Puck said to the woman, reaching up for a high-five.

"Damn zombies," Finn murmured, rubbing his neck, his ears were ringing too. "Why do they have to be so strong?"

"What exactly are you kids doing here?" Teri placed her hands on her hips and looked at them sternly, "shouldn't you all be home with your parents? Or locked in a bomb shelter somewhere awaiting the end of the world?"

"We're planning to rob the place and get the hell out of Lima," Puck answered bluntly, "and none of our parents have even attempted to contact us since the blackout."

"What are you doing here?" Rachel asked Mrs. Schuester.

"I've been staying here to prevent the crazies from looting Sheets N Things like they've done to the rest of the mall. I need to be promoted to manager." Teri replied, glaring at the kids. "And the Zombie Awareness and Preparedness League haven't contacted me yet. I don't really know where else to go."

Rachel, Puck, Blaine and Finn looked at each other and nodded.

"Why don't you come with us, Mrs. Schuester?" Puck sighed.

* * *

Outside in the van, Tina and Mike were making out Asianly, when they heard a loud roar coming from the back seat. The looked at each other, hardly daring to turn around, when Brittany suddenly launched herself on to Tina's head and latched her teeth into the Asian girls neck.

Tina screamed and tried to shake off the blonde cheerleader, but Brittany, who was now a zombie, was too strong.

Mike felt sick. He didn't know what to do, and his options seemed limited. He doubted that if he got bit, the three of them could travel around the country being an awesome zombie trio. No, he was fully aware that he could either get Tina and Brittany out of the van somehow, or he could let them eat him. He tried not to see his girlfriend's face as Brittany chewed on her.

"Do it," Tina told him, she was crying and there was blood streaming down her face. "Please."

Mike realized then that he had one other option. Brittany was already a zombie; it was too late to help her. However, he could do something for Tina.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered as he reached for the handgun Finn had left in the console.

"I love you," Tina told him, wincing in pain as Brittany tore off another strip of flesh.

With tears in his eyes, Mike pulled the trigger. His bullet went through both Brittany's skull, and Tina's. His heart hardened as he watched his girlfriend's chest rise and fall for the last time. He fired at the zombie one more time just to be sure.

Then a strange calm fell over him and he knew exactly what he needed to do. Mike put the key into the ignition, turned on the van, and drove through the parking lot and around the mall to the wooded area behind it. There he used one of the shovels they'd stowed in the trunk to dig two identical graves. After gently placing the bodies into them, he covered them back up, vomited, and went back to his parking spot in front of the mall where people were waiting.

* * *

**Authors Note: Happy Super Bowl! (Insert Beer Commercial). (Just kidding kids, don't drink.) Wow. Okay; I'm not gonna lie, I didn't know that (the chapter, not the randomly inserted beer commercial) was going to happen until it did. I'm as surprised as you are. This chapter WOULD choose to reveal itself to me while I'm trying to study for a big test, wouldn't it? Oh well. I hope you liked it. Please review!**

**Peace Out.**


	7. New Players

**Chapter Seven**

**New Players**

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine.**

Mercedes, Artie, Kurt and Quinn returned to the van first.

At first none of them noticed anything out of the ordinary, and then Mercedes saw the bloodstains on the car door.

"Oh my God," she whispered, her body filling with dread. She didn't want to assume the worst, but huge bloodstains never signify anything good.

Seeing Mike Chang behind the wheel but not noticing anyone else in the vehicle, her eyes immediately leapt to Artie.

"What happened?" Kurt asked as they reached the van. He regretted the question the second Mike looked at him.

The Asian boy's eyes had taken on a haunted quality they hadn't had before.

"Are you okay? I mean, do you need someone else to drive for a little while?" Kurt asked, deciding that he didn't need an explanation just yet.

"I'm fine," Mike replied expressionlessly, making it clear that he wanted to be left alone.

Kurt and Mercedes wordlessly conversed about whether or not they should push the subject. Ultimately the two began to load their collections into the trunk in silence while Quinn comforted Artie.

This was the scene Rachel, Finn, Blaine, Puck and Teri walked up on.

Unlike the group ahead of them, they didn't have to ask what had happened. The bloodstains and the positions of their friends told them all they needed to know. Teri was a bit confused, but she was so engulfed in her own world that it barely registered.

Rachel couldn't help but notice that she wasn't the only one without a partner anymore, but this knowledge didn't make her feel good. Losing Finn had been hard, but she had eventually come to terms with it. At least he was still alive and they'd had the opportunity to rebuild their friendship. Brittany, Tina and Santana weren't coming back. Mike and Artie hadn't done anything to deserve that. Suddenly being upset over something as trivial as a breakup seemed stupid, and she despised herself for dwelling on it for so long.

Trying to decide what to say to Mike was hard. She knew how she'd felt after shooting zombie Santana, but she didn't think that counted. Mike had had to kill his girlfriend. Rachel didn't know the whole story, but she didn't want to press for it either.

"Do you want me to drive for a while?" Rachel asked, settling for the obvious.

"I'm fine," he told her. He wasn't, she could see that, but she also knew that she couldn't help him deal with it, because she honestly wasn't dealing too well with it herself.

Rachel wondered if he blamed her for whatever had happened. She'd been so concerned over Puck's possibility of turning into a zombie, but she hadn't even spared a thought about Brittany. It was becoming quite clear, to Rachel at least, that she had absolutly no idea what what she was doing. She almost wished that someone else would take charge of the situation so that when things went wrong, it wouldn't be her fault.

"Okay," she sighed, trying hard to fight off the self-loathing thoughts that often accompanied a good idea gone wrong.

Nobody wanted to sit in the front seat, so while Mike drove, the other eight piled into the back seats.

It was an awkward ride. Nobody knew what to say to anyone else, and they were particularly careful around Mike and Artie, who were both quiet and deep in thought.

The middle seat in the van was occupied by the groups remaining 'couples'. Finn and Quinn sat huddled as closely together as they could get, while Kurt and Blaine sat close but did little more than hold hands.

Mercedes, Rachel, Puck, Artie and Mrs. Schuester all crammed into the seat in the very back. They were even more cramped because they were all trying to give Artie space.

At this point the group was simply driving around with no destination in mind. Quinn actually asked Rachel why her father's hadn't planned a meeting place, and Rachel was forced to admit that there were some things they hadn't thought of. Teri still believed that she would be contacted by the Zombie Preparedness and Response League.

"We should find some place to stay the night," Rachel announced around ten thirty pm. They were paying more attention to time these days because the sun had stopped coming up and it was dark all of the time.

"It sure would have been nice if you'd made that suggestion an hour ago when we passed the last town," Quinn snorted, "I haven't seen any hotel signs since then."

"All of these houses look abandoned," Terri commented as they drove through a rural housing development, "why don't we just crash at one of them?"

"It does seem like all rules of social courtesy have gone out the window these days," Kurt agreed, "I think I agree with Mrs. Schuester."

So Mike drove until they spotted a house that looked large enough to have a room for everyone, and that's where they stopped for the night.

It was a large house in the middle of nowhere that had a long drive way and was surrounded by trees and what looked like security towers.

In soon as they entered, it became apparent that it was an old asylum. The building had a sterile, institutional feel to it, and all of the walls were padded.

"Wait here," Rachel told everyone as she shouldered her rifle and went to check the place for zombies. While she was gone, the group heard several gunshots. When she returned, she looked annoyed.

"What is it?" Puck asked in concern, "is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Rachel sighed, "it's just that we aren't alone."

As if on cue, two figures appeared at the end of the hall way. As they got closer, one looked familiar while the other did not.

"Guys," Rachel sighed with the same look on her face that she would wear if she were smelling something unpleasant, "you all remember Jesse St. James, right? And this is his friend Gandalf."

"I'm cool with Gandalf," Puck sighed, running his hand through his mohawk, "but can we pretend St. James is a zombie and shoot him?"

When everyone glared at him, he realized what he'd just said.

"I shouldn't have said that," he apologized quickly. "I think this building is big enough for all of us, don't you?"

"That's what I was thinking," Rachel declared, "plus, it's really late, and I just want to take a long shower and go to bed."

"There isn't any running water in here," Gandalf informed them, "but there is a nice stream out back."

"This night just keeps getting better and better," Mercedes sighed. "Hey Rache, you want to room with me? I don't particularly want to be alone in an insane asylum tonight."

"I'm good with that," Rachel offered the girl a small grin.

It seemed nobody really wanted to be alone tonight.

Of course 'the 'Inn's' roomed together. Kurt and Blaine awkwardly agreed to spend the night in the same room, Artie and Puck roomed up as well. Mrs. Schuester even volunteered to join Rachel and Mercedes. Only Mike wanted to be left alone.

Before the group separated for the night, Jesse warned them to double lock their doors.

**Authors Note: sorry this is so short, I wasn't really sure where else to go with it from here. We've had some tragedy, now we have a couple new players. How will the effect the story? Read on and find out! **

**Next chapter: More Puckleberry moments, silliness about hair, and probably some zombie violence (because I like writing the zombie violence).**

**And please review! Seriously, this story has more story alerts than any of my others, so let's try to beat the review record (72) too! (I really like reviews).**

**Peace Out!**


	8. Restless

**Chapter Eight**

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine.**

**Restless**

For some reason, Blaine was restless. He felt physically and emotionally drained, but he just couldn't sleep.

As he lay awake listening to Kurt snoring beside him, he reflected on his relationship with the boy. There had been a time when they'd had a chance at being more than friends, but they'd somehow messed that up and fallen into a mixture of friendship and awkwardness. He hated that. He despised his tendency to not pay attention and miss out on what his friends called 'obvious signals'.

He still wanted a relationship, but always got too nervous to make it happen. At the same time though, after seeing the way Mike and Artie reacted over the deaths of their girlfriends, he wasn't sure he wanted to be attached to someone like that. Especially during these times that were becoming exponentially more dangerous and violent death was becoming uncomfortably common.

He just wasn't sure he could handle the emotional trauma it.

_'Stop being such a wuss and make a damn move already,'declared the voice in his head that encouraged him to take chances. _

He often found himself feeling like one of those cartoon characters with the little devil and angel floating around their heads. For some reason this voice had a british accent.

_'You know you're better off alone,' whispered the other voice, the one that kept preventing him from doing anything to change the status of his relationship with Kurt. This one had a really strong southern accent. 'Especially now. You don't want to develop strong feelings just to watch him die, do you?'_

The problem was that Blaine already had these feelings for the boy. Whether they were shared or not, he wasn't sure he would be able to deal with Kurt's death.

_'Ah, but who says he's going to die?' demanded the encouraging, british voice in Blaine's head. 'Don't be such a negative Nancy! Thing's could work out fine.'_

_'Don't be rediculous,' the other voice snorted indignantly, 'you're all going to die. You're going to have to watch all of your friend's become zombies, and then you or someone else is going to have to shoot them. Do you really want to be in a relationship when that happens? If I were you, I know I wouldn't want to mess with it.'_

Glancing over at the boy snoring beside him, Blaine sighed. He was pretty sure he'd be single for the rest of his life. At least with all of these zombies and apocalyptic occurrences, it might not last that long.

"Well that's a depressing though," Blaine murmured to himself as he rolled over onto his back.

That's when he noticed the light coming through the crack in the open door. He really thought he'd locked that. He thought about getting up to close it, but because of the lack of electricity, there was no heat in the room and it was quite cold.

'Maybe I can close it using my mystical mind powers,' Blaine thought to himself, pulling the blanket up and staring at the door. He knew it was really irresponsible to leave the door unlocked these days, with zombies and everything, but he just wasn't ready to get up and close it yet.

He really should have.

Blaine must have dozed off for a few minutes; suddenly he was rudely awoken to find Gandalf sitting on his chest.

"Show me the ring, hobbit!" the man demanded.

"What?" Blaine asked quietly, confused, but not wanting to wake Kurt.

"Stop messing with me," Gandalf glared down at him, "Where is it? Does the she-hobbit have it?"

Blaine had absolutely no idea what the man was going on about, but he was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with him.

"What?" Blaine asked again, "what are you talking about?"

This was going to take a while.

At least he wasn't the only one still awake.

* * *

"What are you doing up?" despite being completely exhausted, Puck couldn't sleep and had decided to go to the kitchen in search of food. Apparently he wasn't the only one.

"Couldn't sleep," Rachel sighed, "I figured if I wandered around long enough, I might stumble upon a kitchen. What are you doing up?"

"I really want to say something manly and full of badassedness," Puck sighed, "but I'm really tired and not feeling creative. I just couldn't sleep because my mind won't shut up. It's been a hard day."

"You mean yesterday?" Rachel asked, checking the date on the milk in the refrigerator.

"Damn," Puck sighed, "this unending darkness is seriously messing with my perception of night and day."

"I know," Rachel agreed, now sniffing a block of cheese, "I just hope my watch is right. Remember when we could tell the time by the sun, or just pull out our cellphones?"

"That was less than a week ago," Puck reminded her.

"Yeah," Rachel sighed, remembering that the electricity had been out for several days, she put the cheese back and moved on to the cabinets. "I miss those days. Everything was so much simpler then."

Puck watched with amusement as the girl continued her quest for midnight munchies.

"How about we go get the munchies out of the van?" Puck suggested when he noticed Rachel eyeing a jar of peanut butter.

"Mike has the keys," Rachel reminded him, "I don't want to wake him up."

"Like he's actually sleeping," Puck said darkly, thinking of what his friend had gone through today. "I know I wouldn't be able to if I was in his position. That shit earlier was freakin' intense."

"I hate this," Rachel groaned, giving up the search for food and plopping herself down at the table across from Puck. "I hate having to leave home during Christmas, you know that's tomorrow, right? I hate not knowing how my family is. I hate having to carry a shotgun everywhere I go. I hate having to mentally prepare myself to shoot my friends if they happen to get bitten. I hate all of this fighting. I hate everyone assuming that I know what I'm doing! I hate that I feel like Brittany and Tina's death's are entirely my fault! I fucking hate all of this!"

Puck leaned across the table and pulled her hand into his.

"Don't tell me it's going to be alright," Rachel ordered, glaring at him through tear filled eyes, "I'm a big girl. I've shot zombies who look like people I know. I know better than to expect things to be alright."

"We'll get through it," Puck told her, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb.

"Just don't become a zombie," Rachel told him, somehow giving a slight smile while looking completely serious.

With that, Puck came around the table and pulled the shorter girl into his arms. The touch seemed to be exactly what they both needed.

* * *

Meanwhile, Puck and Rachel weren't the only ones who were still awake. Jesse St. James had been on his way to the kitchen for a glass of water, when he heard them talking. Feeling as though walking in on them would be rude, and potentially get him shot, he'd decided to wait patiently outside the door for them to leave. However, that had been thirty minutes ago.

Despite his foul deeds at McKinley three years ago, the former lead of Vocal Adrenaline was in fact the owner of a soul. His conscience had been nagging him to apologize to New Directions, and more importantly, Rachel for years. The girl had accepted his Facebook apology, but the pair hadn't spoken in person since Regionals his senior year.

'Do I still have feelings for her?' he wondered in shock as he fought the urge to run to her side as he overheard her ran about hating their situation. Jealousy raged as watched Puck put his arms around the girl, who seemed to welcome the gesture.

Making a vow to somehow win her affections, Jesse abandoned his quest for water and headed back to his room.

As he was walking down the hall however, he heard Gandalf going on about 'hobbits' and 'Mordor' again. Gandalf's real name was Steve, but he had a multiple personality disorder that made him all kinds of crazy. Lately Steve had become Gandalf the Grey, from The Lord of the Rings. He'd been saying that 'the hobbits are coming' since Jesse had arrived at the asylum two days ago.

As he neared the commotion, Jesse realized that Gandalf/Steve was standing out in the hall, quietly trying to convince Blaine to 'show him the ring'. It was very clear that Blaine had no idea what was going on, and was becoming increasingly more disturbed.

Jesse to the rescue!

"Gandalf," Jesse laughed, walking up to the two, "what have I told you about disturbing the guests?"

"I was only going to offer to accompany the she-hobbit and this one on their journey to deliver the Ring of Power to the fires of Mount Doom!" Gandalf complained.

"Shhhhh," Jesse reminded his mentally disturbed friend, "That's supposed to be a secret."

"Oh!" Gandalf declared, accepting this excitedly, "Okay. Cool. I totally get that."

"I did tell you to double lock the door," Jesse said, looking apologetically at Blaine as he led Gandalf away.

**Authors Note: Alright, so I lied about the hair and the zombies. I'm making this stuff up as I go, and I just couldn't fit it in with the story line at this time. However, there is some troubled Klaine, sweet Puckleberry, devious Jesse, and some Gandalf craziness. I actually have no idea what happens next, but it will most definitely be zombie/apocalypse related. **

**So, last chapter got the largest number of reviews so far, and that was fan-freaking-tastic! Seriously, when I find them in my inbox, I do a little happy dance (gotten a few weird looks because of this). Anyway, keep it up. You guys are awesome.**

**Peace Out!**


	9. Chosen

**Chapter Nine**

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine.**

**Chosen**

Rachel yawned as she walked down the hall checking on her friends. She almost felt guilty for continuing to act as the leader when it was becoming very obvious that she didn't know what she was doing. She certainly wasn't doing a very good job at keeping them alive. Her friends trusted her exclusively, and she felt like she was letting them down. Despite her conversation with Puck earlier this morning, she still felt dirty; as though by leaving Brittany asleep in the van, she'd killed both Tina and the cheerleader herself.

She thought maybe she understood some of what _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ had been feeling when she sang '_Going through the Motions'_ in the season six musical episode.

Okay, she'd never died and been brought back to life by magic, but she could certainly relate to _"…Nothing here is real, nothing here is right…"_

People weren't supposed to become zombies. Friends weren't supposed to have to kill their friends. Life wasn't supposed to be like this.

And _"…I've been making shows of trading blows, but lately no one knows I am going through the motions, walking through the part…"_

She hadn't really been prepared at all. Sure she'd believed the rumors that December 21, 2012 was going to be the first day of the end of the world. She'd created her 'End of the World Survival Kit'. She'd also learned some basic martial arts and taken some gunmanship classes. Rachel had really believed that she was prepared to survive the end of the world, whatever it entailed. She was wrong.

She'd taken charge of the situation in soon as the electricity went out the first day. She had expertly convinced her friends that she knew exactly what she was doing. Amazing the effect of a large black duffel bag and a big gun can have on people. Nobody knew that she'd been winging it since the Rain of Toads. The fact that her father's hadn't even planned out an emergency meeting point should have been her first clue.

Rachel missed the carefree days of last week when the kids had still been in school and the most exciting thing in their lives was the upcoming Christmas Vacation. All she'd had to worry about during those days was whether or not she'd get a solo at Glee Club, or if she was going to get slushied that day.

She'd certainly prefer a slushie to the face than another friend becoming a zombie.

Every time she thought of their situation, Rachel wanted to sit down and cry for a while. Any one of the others would have that option, but not her. She was trying to be a strong leader. And big girls don't cry.

Pulling herself back together, Rachel knocked on Mike's door.

She suspected that she was probably the last person he would want to see, but after she'd over-looked the possibility of Brittany becoming a zombie, she wasn't taking any more chances. All Rachel needed to know was that Mike was alive and hadn't been bitten.

When he didn't answer, Rachel knocked again. She wanted to do this the nice polite way, but she was going into that room whether Mike invited her in or not.

"Mike, it's me," Rachel said through the door, "Can you come out for a second?"

"Go away," replied a quiet voice on the other side of the door.

"Just come out for a second," Rachel repeated, she wasn't going away until she got a good look at the Asian boy. "If you don't, I'll get Puck, Finn and Blaine to break down the door."

"You're a bitch," Mike said, finally opening the door a crack. He tried to slam it closed again after this, but Rachel was fast and got her hand in the crack. She tried not to scream when her hand was crushed in the doorway.

"Well that's gonna break a blood vessel," She sighed, noting the shocked look on Mike's face. "Look, after the incident in the van yesterday, you of all people should understand why I want to make sure that nobody is sleeping all day."

"You have no idea what you're doing," Mike sighed, opening the door all the way so that she could see him, "do you?"

"I'm trying," Rachel replied. She didn't really want to get into it. "Anyway, how are you holding up?"

"How do you think?" Mike snorted, "Tina wasn't a zombie yet."

"But she'd been bitten," Rachel told him gently, now having a slightly better idea of what was going on with the boy. "I know that there is nothing I can say that will make you feel better, but what you did was really brave. No, Tina wasn't a zombie yet, but she was either going to become one later or get eaten by one in the front seat of your van while you either ran away or waited for your turn to be Brittany's dinner. I'm sorry for being so blunt, but that's how I see things. I don't know what happened in that van and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I just don't believe you would have shot Tina if you had any other choice."

"How did you feel after you shot Santana?" Mike asked quietly after a few seconds.

"Like I'd just killed my friend," Rachel replied. "I knew that it wasn't really her, that the thing inside her had already destroyed all traces of the girl we knew, but that didn't really affect the way I felt about shooting her."

Mike nodded.

"Look Mike, I get that you probably just want to be left alone for a while, but the others are worried about you. Why don't you come out for a little while? It might make you feel a little better." Rachel sighed. For her, the stages of grief were; cussing, screaming, crying, and hugging. Because Mike was such a quiet, laid back guy, she thought maybe they'd reached the hugging stage, but wasn't sure if he'd accept it or punch her in the face.

"I guess," Mike replied, "Hey, do you think there's any way that getting Tina's blood on me will turn me in to a zombie?"

"I don't know," Rachel told him honestly, "it's possible, but it's also possible that you didn't give the virus enough time to attack her system. I don't really know enough about it to really say for sure. I'll just keep an eye on you for a few days."

"If I do become one," Mike told her, "don't let me be one for long, okay?

'Why do people keep asking me that?' Rachel asked herself as she gave Mike her answer in the form of a head nod. Then, on a whim, she hugged him. For a second he was a little surprised, and then he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and began to sob.

While she patted Mike on the back in an attempt to comfort the boy, Rachel reflected on the lives of her favorite 'Chosen One's'. Despite choosing to do so herself, it seemed only natural that the girl attempting to survive a zombie apocalypse would look up to those characters that had epic responsibility thrust upon them.

Her favorites were _Buffy_ and _Harry Potter_.

At the age of sixteen, _Buffy_ had been informed that it was her thankless duty to kill vampires and save the world. Though she'd refused at first, she'd eventually accepted her fate and become the best slayer ever, despite dying twice.

_Harry Potter_ had been chosen by a prophecy even before his birth. Despite being raised by his abusive Aunt and Uncle, he'd grown up to be a decent person. When told of that he'd saved a whole race of people when he was a baby, he was appropriately shocked. When told that he was going to be expected to do it again, he barely questioned this at all, and simply allowed his mentors to teach him what they could, and fought to save the world.

The two characters were really quite similar.

At the moment, however, she felt much more like _Angel_ at the end of the series when he was valiantly preparing to fight a losing battle.

**Author's note: I'm not really sure where that came from. I just sat down one night, and **_**"Going through the Motions"**_** from "Once More with Feeling" (**_**Buffy the Vampire Slayer**_**, season 6) popped into my head, so I thought I'd work it in here (I may have gotten the lyrics wrong, I didn't google it). I thought Rachel and Mike needed to have a moment as well. I meant to work in some more action this chapter, but it just got so long. Your reviews keep this Author happy, which makes for faster updates (keep that in mind!).**

**Peace Out!**


	10. Sacrifice

Chapter Ten

Sacrifice

Disclaimer: Glee is not mine.

Teri Schuester wondered how her life had come to this. Hiding out in an old asylum with a bunch of kids while outside the world seemed to be ending. She tried to pin point the exact moment her life had started turning to crap. She was pretty sure it was the day her husband met the guidance counselor at McKinley.

This had led to her faking the pregnancy that had ended her marriage with her husband believing that she was an evil bitch. Teri still couldn't understand how he had come to that conclusion, everything she'd done had been in a last ditch effort to save her marriage. Her husband had never been able to understand that.

She was aware that she had problems. The fact that she got nervous over the most ridiculous things had been the first indicator. It had also been pointed out to her that she had a tendency to act naively and neglect the consequences. Like the time she'd taken the school nurse position at McKinley High, even though she wasn't actually a nurse. That had ended disastrously.

Sure she could be a bitch sometimes, but was it her fault that being on her feet eight hours a week made her cranky?

As she listened to the kid's complain about their lives, she wanted to tell them to shut up and enjoy it. High school wouldn't last forever, and when it ended, life would get a billion times worse. She also wanted to tell the girls who were convinced that having a boyfriend was the most important thing in the world that they were being silly. She'd learned the hard way that relying on a man to take care of you was a good way to alienate yourself and ruin your marriage. Now she was almost thirty, and until recently had worked for minimum wage at Sheets N Things. She really should have listened to her parents and gone to college.

Quinn Fabray in particular reminded Teri of herself at that age: the pretty, popular head cheerleader; a smart girl who was head-over-heels in love with Finn Hudson, the most popular boy in school. Finn reminded Teri of her ex-husband as well. Though that could just be because the two were fantastic singers, or perhaps the fact that Finn seemed to have looked to Will as a role model.

Teri had never dated anyone other than Will, and the two of them had gotten married right after high school. They'd thought they'd be together forever.

Forever is a really long time to spend with someone you've only known for four years.

She only hoped that these kids knew what they were getting into. She certainly didn't want to see them repeat her mistakes.

Watching 'the 'Inn's'' as their friends called them, Teri hoped that the pretty blond never had to shoot her zombified ex-husband and zombified woman he'd left her for to prevent the happy zombie couple from eating her.

"Mrs. Schuester?" Finn asked, wondering why the woman was staring at him. "Is everything alright?"

"Oh yes," Teri lied, shaking herself out of her flashbacks, "I was just thinking how much you and Quinn remind me of Will and I when we were you're age."

It was obvious that the kids couldn't decide what to do with this information, no kid really wants to believe that adults were kids once too. When Teri had been younger, she'd had difficulty accepting that her teachers had lives outside of school.

Teri stood up and yawned, declaring that she was going to go take a nap, she left the room. As she headed for the room she was sharing with Rachel and Mercedes, Teri absentmindedly rubbed the bite on her shoulder.

'I should tell someone about this,' she thought as she made her way back to her room.

She'd been bitten the day before the kids had found her at the mall. She'd really hoped that she'd be one of the lucky ones who didn't get infected, she knew now that she didn't have long.

She'd woken up this morning to find the bite red, swollen, and oozing a foul smelling fluid. It itched horribly, and was quite disgusting.

'It isn't fair,' she thought. More than anything, she wanted a redo. She had so many regrets. There were so many things she'd never gotten to do. So many people she wanted to apologize to. She didn't even know if they were all still alive. All of this was just so wrong.

"Hey Rachel?" Teri sighed as she passed the short brunette in the hall, "can I talk to you for a minute?"

She proceeded tell the girl about being attacked by her ex-husband and his guidance counselor girlfriend, and how they'd bitten her; other than being slightly taken aback when Teri showed her the bit, Rachel was calm, and professional about the situation.

"What does it feel like?" the girl asked, mostly out of curiosity. Teri knew she'd seen several of her friends get taken by the disease.

"At first it just turned red and itched," Teri told her, "then this morning it started hurting. When I went to look at it, it was like this. Now my arm is starting to go numb, and I'm really tired. I want to go to bed, but I'm pretty sure I'll wake up as a zombie."

Rachel nodded, she was pretty sure she knew what was coming. She hated that in the few days that had passed since the apocalypse had begun, she'd become so hard. All of her instincts told her to take this woman out into the woods behind the asylum and shoot her.

"You seem to know what you're doing," Teri told her, "I don't want to become a zombie."

Rachel looked at the bite on the woman's shoulder one more time, and nodded.

As she watched the girl's hand reach for her gun, Teri Schuester smiled sadly. Here she was, finally doing something thoughtful for someone else, and there wasn't anyone around to be impressed.

The two got a couple of odd looks as they walked out the backdoor, a few of the boys even offered to come and protect them. Rachel told them she could handle it, obviously not wanting witnesses.

"You know what?" Teri said as the boy with the Mohawk asked if he could join the women, "why don't you come."

She looked over at Rachel, who was glaring at her.

"You'll thank me later," Teri told the girl with a small smile.

The three of them set off into the woods, going in deep enough so that the others wouldn't hear the gunshot.

Puck had suspected something like this when he'd seen Rachel and Teri together, so he didn't say anything as Rachel did what she had to do. He then helped her bury the body in silence.

Nobody asked any questions hours later when they returned alone, mostly because nobody really wanted to know the answers.

**Author's Note: hey guys, this was my attempt to make Teri Schuester a little more likeable. How did I do? I'm experimenting with taking this story to some darker places. Sorry updates are taking so long, I seem to be having some difficulty writing chronologically at the moment. I know where I'm going, but not totally sure how to get there, so it's taking a bit more writing to come up with a chapter.**

**I'm also working on a new story (I blame the preview for next week's episode), but it's going to be a while before I post that. So that, combined with college and life, is where a lot of my time is going. I'm still going to be making regular updates on this story, but they will probably be only once or twice a week.**

**You're reviews make my day. And all of your 'alerts' and 'favorites' make me happy too.**

**Peace Out! **


	11. News

**Chapter 11**

**News**

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine.**

If the clock on the wall was correct, it was a few minutes after midnight. Jesse thought it might be a Tuesday, but his cellphone had died several days ago and he was such a slave to technology that he just couldn't keep track of the days of the week without it.

He supposed it didn't matter anyway, it's not like he had school or anything.

Besides having already graduated, the freakin' world was ending.

He heard a noise and reached for his gun. It probably wasn't anything, but the cold steel under his hand offered a small comfort.

As he walked through the asylum searching for the source of the noise he'd heard, he reflected on his life and just had to laugh. Whoever would have thought that Jesse St. James would be stalking through an abandoned asylum prepared to shoot something? All of his friend's would have expected him to either be the first one killed, or the one who survived only by hiding.

He heard something behind him and turned quickly.

"It's just me," Rachel said quietly, raising both her hand and her bag of Cheetos. She had her rifle slung over her shoulder hanging by its strap.

"You shouldn't sneak up on someone like that," Jesse sighed, lowering his gun.

"Sorry," Rachel told him, "I just couldn't sleep, and figured you could use some company standing guard tonight."

Though he appreciated her company, Jesse had to wonder if this girl ever slept. She seemed to be the person everyone went to for advice. She was also involved with everything that went on in the asylum. With all that, he just couldn't see when she could possibly have gotten a moment to rest.

"Do you ever sleep?" he asked, having exhausted his ability to over contemplate things.

Rachel had to think for a moment before answering.

"It's been a while," she sighed, "I've just got so much on my mind. It drives me crazy if I sit still for too long."

Jesse could understand that. He'd done several things in the last few weeks that he had trouble living with.

_He'd come home for Christmas break to discover that his parents were zombies, and fought them off until he could run to his father's gun cabinet. At first he'd hesitated, unable to shoot the people who'd created him. Then he'd noticed something behind the couch. It was a small tennis shoe, attached to a tiny girl. His sister._

'_Damn,' he'd thought, resenting himself for ignoring her phone calls as he'd been driving home earlier. Even though he knew there wasn't anything he could have done for her personally, he still felt responsible for her death. He knew he'd never forget the image of her lying in a pool of her own blood with bits of flesh torn from all over her body._

_While he'd been noticing this, he zombified parent had been pulling and clawing at his flesh. Just in time, he saw his mother down on the floor about to bite his ankle. This was going to be another nightmare he'd have for the rest of his life. Simultaneously, he'd kicked his zombified mother in the face while swinging up with the butt of the rifle in his hands to prevent his father from attacking his neck._

'_These things ate my sister,' He'd thought, refusing to think of the zombies as he parents._

_Then he'd shot them both. _

"Are you alright?" Rachel asked, prodding Jesse with the butt of her gun. The boy had gone quiet all of a sudden.

"Sorry," he grunted, unable to meet her eyes, "I was just thinking."

Rachel nodded and didn't say anything.

This wasn't how Jesse remembered her.

The Rachel Berry he'd known would have pressed for details in an almost annoyingly persistent manner. Jesse wondered if she'd just mellowed out over the years, or if it was the zombie apocalypse taking its toll on her. He was certainly aware of the changes it had made in him.

As they walked through the kitchen, there was a loud beep. Immediately the two of them crouched low and prepared to defend themselves by shooting something. Then Rachel pointed out that the microwave was blinking. The electricity was back on.

The two glanced at each other.

"Television," they whispered in unison. It wasn't that the two of them had a burning desire to get caught up on their Soaps; they just hadn't heard any news in weeks.

"I used to hate the news," Rachel sighed as Jesse led her into a room that held a couch and a small television set.

"I'm not totally convinced I want to watch it now," Jesse confessed. "It's not like we aren't aware that things are bad."

"I want to know if there are any safe places left," Rachel said quietly, carefully sitting down on the old couch. "I'm so tired of everyone dying."

Jesse didn't say anything. It wasn't that he didn't agree with her, he just had other things on his mind.

_His father had been a huge fan of the Fox News Channel. Whenever the man had had a free day, he'd spent it watching Fox News._

_Jesse's bullet had gone right through his zombified father's skull and shattered the television set. One of the Fox Newscasters had been discussing the most recent fad diet._

'I have to stop thinking about this,' Jesse told himself as he felt Rachel slide the television remote out of his grasp. Watching her limp back to her seat, he regretted making her have to get up.

Making his way over to the couch, Jesse wished he had someone to talk to about his problems. Then he wished he wanted to talk about them. He'd noticed that no one was really talking about their problems these days.

"Are you alright?" Rachel asked again when the Television went to commercial, "you're really quiet."

Jesse was conflicted. He really did want to tell her. He figured that she, out of everyone else, would understand what he was feeling. He had his suspicions about what she'd had to do in the woods the day before. If his suspicions were right, he could understand her not being able to sleep. He also knew that she would respect that he wasn't ready to talk about it yet.

"Look Rachel," Jesse told the girl, "My instincts are telling me to talk to you, and that it will make me feel better. I'm not going to talk about it yet. I just think you have too much on your mind already."

Now it was Rachel's turn to be conflicted.

Jesse figured that perhaps she wanted him to talk about it, but she also appreciated him deciding not to drop it on her tonight.

"Alright," the girl sighed, sinking into the couch and carefully putting her feet up on the coffee table.

As Jesse sat down beside her, making sure to keep a comfortable space between them, he knew that he wouldn't be able to concentrate on the news.

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**Author's Note: Why hello there, my good readers. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. It came to me last night while I was listening to a song on my itunes...this chapter has absolutly nothing to do with that song, but I guess that's just how my brain works these days.**

**Next Chapter: zombie violence!**

**Reviewing is fun, if you've reached this point on the page, please take a few more seconds to review and let me know what you think of the story so far.**

**Peace Out! **


	12. Bitten

**Chapter 12**

**Bitten **

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine**

Rachel wished her father's would turn down the television.

She could hear it so clearly in her bedroom that she could tell they were watching a horror film.

She could tell because of all of the shooting and the screaming.

Her father's had been huge fans of horror films, constantly watching them to pick up tips for surviving a monster apocalypse.

Maybe it was her imagination, but it almost sounded like the fight was happening close to her.

She opened her eyes when she heard another blast of gunfire. It seemed to be coming from the next room.

'That's odd,' she thought, opening her eyes and looking around. She was curled up on an old couch with a ratty blanket tucked around her. 'This isn't my room."

Then she remembered where she was and how she'd gotten there.

That's when she heard someone screaming.

She sighed longingly for the mornings when the simple explanation of 'the tv is to loud' would have been the case.

'Damn it,' she thought, mentally cursing Jesse for letting her sleep. She'd known something like this would happen. Something bad always happened when she got distracted.

Rachel grabbed her gun and ran out into the lobby and found that a bunch of zombies were struggling to get in through the door they'd broken down. Though they moved slowly, unable to figure out that they couldn't all go through the door at once, there were enough inside to cause a problem.

She joined Puck and Jesse on the front line, and began to shoot into the throngs as they fought to get through the front door. It was as though there were three more zombies for each on that she killed.

"This could be it," She heard Kurt shout as he ducked behind the couch with the rest of the group. They'd planned this. In the case that the asylum got attacked; Rachel, Jesse and Puck would hold the zombies off for as long as they could while the others hid behind the couch and prepared to back them up.

"Don't even think that," Blaine told the boy as he aimed his gun at a zombie and fired.

"You tell him, Blaine," Mercedes added her two cents to the conversation, "we're way smarter than these things. We can take 'em."

She'd spoken too soon.

There was a loud crack and the then the sound of glass breaking echoed through the building. The zombies had found the backdoor, and they were coming in through the windows. Suddenly the kids found themselves surrounded on all sides.

"Damn," Mercedes swore, realizing that she'd jinxed it.

Puck, Rachel and Jesse stood back to back in the center of the circle of the advancing undead, and maintained a steady hail of gunfire. They didn't seem to be making much progress because of the sheer quantity of the attack; if zombies actually had the capacity for planning, they would have thought that the zombies had actually gotten together and planned to attack them.

Things got even worse after they heard Quinn screaming.

She'd somehow gotten cornered in the back of the room and was being held while several zombies pulled at her, each hoping to make her their snack.

Finn was already trying to save her, but it wasn't going well.

While Finn shot at the zombies holding her, and beat them back with the butt of his gun as he tried to get closer, more and more zombies got in his way. He kept trying to kill off all of the zombies that were around his girlfriend, but he couldn't get a clear shot he was comfortable taking. It didn't help that she kept squirming to keep herself away from their mouths.

"Go," Jesse nodded to Puck and Rachel. This was his way of telling them he could hold his own with the zombies, and that he understood that they wanted to go help their friends.

Puck immediately raced to aid the 'Inn's, while Rachel hesitated a moment.

"I'll be fine," Jesse reassured the girl, slightly surprised at her hesitation. "Go rescue the blonde girl."

Rachel nodded and, against her better judgment, went after Puck, leaving Jesse to deal with the majority of the zombies by himself.

Even with Rachel and Puck's assistance, Finn still wasn't making much progress toward his girlfriend.

"Watch it!" he shouted when Puck shot down a zombie a little too close to Quinn for Finn's liking.

"Dude," Puck shouted as he slammed a zombie to the ground with the butt of his gun, "it was about to bite her. I made sure I had a clear shot."

That's when two things happened. A particularly nasty looking zombie picked up the couch and threw it a Rachel, who wound up unconscious and pinned between it and the wall; and Quinn shrieked as the zombie holding her sank it's teeth into her arm.

"Help me!" she begged.

Her cries tore at their hearts. She'd been bitten. They all knew that there wasn't anything they could do for her at this point.

Several zombies surrounded Finn and were pulling him toward them.

Puck, joined by Kurt, Artie, Mike, Blaine and Mercedes, shot at the zombies, trying to distract them enough to release their friends, but nothing seemed to work.

"There are too many of them!" Jesse shouted from the front room where he was trying to hold them off alone now that everyone was focusing their attention on The 'Inn's.

Finn screamed when one of the zombies sank its teeth into his hand.

That's when he seemed to have a revelation.

He'd been bitten, as had Quinn, who had just stopped screaming. He officially had nothing to lose.

Swinging with his good hand, he caught the zombie holding him by surprise when he punched it in the face, and it released him. He caught his second wind as he continued to shoot the zombies and hit them with his gun.

"Go help Jesse," he shouted to the others, "I've got this."

They were hesitant, not wanting to abandon Finn and Quinn, but not wanting to leave Jesse by himself either. Puck told Kurt, Artie, and Mercedes to stay with Finn, while he, Mike and Blaine went to help Jesse.

Finn fought like a wild man. Now that he didn't have to watch out for their teeth, he had a few more options open to him. He shot at the zombies until he ran out of bullets, and he grabbed the emergency ax that had been set off in the corner of the room in case something like that happened. After that, it was as though he poured all of the rage and frustration that had built up over the last week into hacking at the zombies and making sure that they died.

Eventually the zombies stopped coming, and the kids were able to kill them off.

As soon as the last zombie in the room hit the ground, Finn fell against the wall and sank to the ground, physically and emotionally exhausted. He hadn't been able to save Quinn.

While Puck, Mike, and Blaine hauled the dead zombies out into the woods behind the asylum, Mercedes, Artie and Kurt took care of the wounded.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hey guys, hope everyone's having a great weekend. I hope this make up for the lack of zombie violence in the last few chapters. I'm not totally sure how I feel about it, but it sets me up for the next chapter. Review and let me know what you think.**

**Next Chapter:Unpleasantness occurs as the kids prepare to leave the asylum.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! The inspired part of my brain seems to be directly attached to the number of reviews I get. The more reviews, the more ideas I seem to have. So you're reviews really do help me.**

**Peace Out. **


	13. What is this Feeling?

**Chapter 13**

**What is this Feeling?**

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine**

**

* * *

**

Puck swatted at Mercedes as she attempted to examine the cut on his arm. It hurt like a bitch, but he had other things on his mind.

Getting all of the zombies out of the asylum had been a chore, and he was completely exhausted.

He looked around at his friends scattered throughout the room. It was almost more obvious who wasn't there, than who was. Sure he was upset over Santana, Brittany, and Tina. He was devastated over Quinn, who'd been a close friend of his. Ms. Schuester hadn't been around long enough to make much of an impression, but he respected what she'd asked Rachel to do.

Rachel.

Just thinking her name confused the hell out of Puck these days. He had all of these weird feelings, and looking at her made his chest hurt.

'No way,' he scolded himself, 'don't even think it.'

Puck didn't even want to explore the possibility that he had romantic feelings for Rachel Berry.

Yes he'd always thought that she was sort of cute. And yeah, this badass-zombie slayer side of her was kind of hot.

She was still Rachel Freaking Berry! The Rachel he'd always known was a high-maintenance diva whose ambitions and attitude made her unpleasant to be around.

'She's not like that anymore,' he reminded himself, remembering the way he'd defended her to their friends at the party. Had it really only been a week ago?

Now that he thought about it, Rachel hadn't fought for a solo or put down one of her fellow glee clubbers at all in the weeks leading up to the end of life as they knew it. He wondered now why he hadn't noticed it then, instead of letting her slip away from the group.

'Speaking of Rachel,' he thought, 'where is she?'

Puck remembered her being behind him when they'd gone to help Quinn during the battle, but he couldn't remember seeing her after that.

"Has anyone seen Rachel?" he heard St. James ask the group.

Puck was shocked at the surge of jealousy he felt for not being the first to notice.

"She was behind me when we were trying to help Quinn," Puck spoke up.

'Why the hell not', he sighed, 'I can be just as manly as Mr. I'm-in-the-middle-of-a-zombie-apocalpse-and-my-hair-still-looks-awesome.'

"I was a little preoccupied with trying to rescue my girlfriend," Finn commented, not meeting anyone's eyes, "but I don't remember seeing Rachel."

"Where could she have gone though?" Mercedes asked, "You don't think one of those zombies picked her up and carried her away with them, do you?"

"Maybe they wanted to make her their queen," Blaine said dryly, stuffing a detached arm into a black garbage bag.

It wasn't an impossible suggestion, just highly unlikely.

"Damn it!" everyone spun around to see Kurt, who was cursing loudly, having just remembered something important. "The couch!"

"What?" Puck didn't catch on immediately. "What about the couch?"

"Of course!" Jesse pushed himself off of the wall he was leaning on and limped forward. Puck noticed that the other man's pant leg had been cut away up to the knee and that his leg was wrapped in bandages. "One of the zombies threw the couch across the room. Come on, Puckerman, let's go check it out."

'Our lives are so fucked up,' Puck thought as he went to examine the old brown couch that had been flung up against a wall.

Mike was already down on his hands and knees, trying to get a look underneath the piece of furniture.

"Do you see anything?" Jesse asked, moving to get down and look for himself, then wincing in pain. He sighed in frustration.

"There's something back there," Mike sighed, "but I can't tell if its Rachel, or a zombie. I think we should move the couch."

It was a heavy thing, but with Mike and Blaine on one end and Jesse and Puck got the other, the boys got it done.

"Oh my God," Mercedes gasped as Rachel's unconscious form was revealed.

Mike and Blaine cursed loudly as they found themselves supporting all of the weight of the couch when Jesse and Puck simultaneously dropped their end and raced to see it Rachel had a pulse.

Puck got to the girl first, while Jesse hobbled behind due to his bad leg.

As he sank to the ground next to Berry, Puck tried to remember the steps he'd learned in first aid class he'd taken his freshman year.

_Check the scene_.

Puck didn't bother. The scene was post zombie battle, and they'd just moved a couch off the girl. Nothing seemed 'safe' these days.

_Check for a response_.

He touched her shoulders, being careful not to jostle her too much, and shouted her name. He thought he may have heard a groan.

_Call 911_.

That wouldn't help. He didn't even know if 911 was around anymore.

_Identify the Problem_.

'Okay,' he thought, 'she's unconscious. She was hit with a couch.' Puck noticed then that she had two black eyes, and her nose was bleeding. She also had two knots on her head, one on her forehead, and another on the back of her head.

"I think the couch hit her in the face and she slammed her head into the wall." Puck announced, stepping back so that Mercedes could examine the girl further. "It's possible that it didn't even hit her that hard. Maybe she felt the impact and rolled."

As much as he wanted to stick around and see that she was okay, there were things to do and decisions to be made.

Still he hesitated.

'She's fine,' he told himself, 'she'll probably even be awake by the time you get back.'

Puck wasn't sure what he was feeling, but it had something to do with Berry, and it was starting to drive him insane.

"I found some plywood in the basement," Finn told the guys as the made their way out of the room to give Kurt and the girls some privacy. "I think there's enough to board up the doorways and most of the windows."

Puck tried not to look at the bite marks on his friend's face and arms. He knew what they meant, and that something was going to have to be done about it. He noticed Jesse and Mike eyeing the bites as well, and knew that they were thinking the same thing.

"Um," Blaine cleared his throat, nervously taking one for the team, "Finn, you've been bitten multiple times. Everyone who's been bitten so far has turned into a zombie. How are you feeling?"

"Aw hell," Finn sighed, realizing that he was already losing feeling his limbs. "I guess someone should shoot me then."

The guys looked at each other, each knowing that it needed to be done, but none of them making a move to do it.

'Rachel did it for Teri,' Puck thought to himself as he tried to work up the strength to raise his rifle. 'I should be able to do this for Finn.'

Finn laid the ax he'd found in the corner during the fight on a shelf and looked at his friends.

'I'm not that strong yet,' Puck realized, 'I can't do it.'

"There are some cells in the basement," Jesse said; the man looked pale, as though the thought of more death made him physically ill. "I saw them when I arrived here a few days ago. They look pretty sturdy."

"Alright then," Finn sighed, as he was turning to go to the basement, he stopped and looked at Puck. "Just make sure someone I don't bite anyone after I change."

"Deal," Puck said, clapping his friend on the shoulder.

"And tell Rachel-," Finn stopped here. He wanted to say something brilliant and encouraging to his ex-girlfriend, but couldn't seem to come up with the words. "Well, come up with something brave, and tell her that I said it."

Finn smiled bravely, and headed for the basement, never looking back again.

'Will do, buddy,' Puck thought numbly as he stared at his friends' retreating back.

The other boys set to work in silence.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hey guys, hope everyone's having an awesome week. I think my zombies might be evolving. They throw couches and apparently have claws. **

**Also, a lot of you are asking when Puckleberry is going to happen. The answer to that is: I don't know. It's going to; but I want the characters to earn it, and I don't want to rush the story. I feel like it will be more effective that way. So hang in there. **

**So review, tell me how you think it's going so far. If you want to, suggest some wild personalities for Gandalf (unless I decide to drop him like Glee dropped Sandy Ryerson).**

**Again: REVIEW! (Excessive punctuation) !**

**Peace Out!**


	14. We Aren't Dead Yet

**Chapter 14**

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine.**

**We Aren't Dead Yet **

Mercedes was amazed by the silence that had fallen over the world since the zombie apocalypse had begun. She missed the noises she'd once taken for granted. Things like car noises from the road, birds chirping in the skies, and insect noises didn't happen anymore. The fact that the sun didn't come out anymore and it was always night time didn't help either. It all just seemed wrong.

She also missed the dull roar of people talking in the hallways at school. It had always been slightly annoying to have to yell to be heard, but she preferred it over this. These days, even the slightest whisper seemed to carry for miles.

It didn't help that everyone in the asylum had fallen into an awkward silence as well. Things were tense. It felt like they were all waiting anxiously for something that nobody wanted to happen.

In a way, they were.

The most recent battle had changed everything.

With Quinn dead, Finn in the basement waiting to become a zombie, and Rachel lying unconscious, everyone was falling apart.

Either Puck or Jesse was always by Rachel's side.

Blaine and Kurt were no longer sharing a room, nor did they speak often.

Artie was sleeping all of the time.

Mike never had been one for conversation.

Mercedes wished she had someone to talk to. It seemed as though everyone had their own agenda that they were carrying out in silence.

It was driving her insane.

'I need to go check out Puck's arm,' she sighed, sliding off of the couch and scooping up the first aid kit Rachel had carefully put together in the weeks prior to this disaster. She walked silently down the hall to the room the girl was in, and knocked softly.

"It's open," she heard Puck call quietly.

Mercedes found it interesting that he was so reluctant to leave Rachel's side. She hadn't known that the two were that close.

She opened the door to find him sitting in a chair next to Rachel's bed, tenderly rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb.

"I just wanted to look at your arm," Mercedes quietly told Puck. He nodded silently and leaned toward her without releasing Rachel's hand.

She sighed as she tore open an antiseptic wipe to clean Puck's arm.

When had she started playing nurse?

"This will sting," she told Puck.

She found humor in that for some reason.

The phrase 'that must have stung', often used to describe something that hurts, could be used to describe a lot of things these days.

_It must have stung_ when Quinn got eaten by zombies.

_It must have stung_ when Rachel got hit by a couch.

_It must have stung_ when the zombie had ripped Jesse's leg open.

_It must have stung_ Finn got bitten multiple times.

_It must have stung_ when Blaine stopped speaking to Kurt.

_It must have stung_ when Mike was forced to shoot his girlfriend.

_It must have stung_. What a stupid phrase!

He didn't make a sound as Mercedes cleaned the cut on his shoulder and rewrapped the wound. "That's it," she sighed when she was finished, "do you need anything? Food maybe?"

Puck shook his head and continued to gaze at the unconscious girl.

She wondered what was going on with those two. The way that Puck had reacted when they'd found Rachel had set off red flags in her head.

Unfortunately, she didn't have anyone to share this information with because Tina and the cheerleaders were dead, Rachel was unconscious, and Kurt had his own stuff to deal with.

"Alright," Mercedes sighed and got up to leave. As she was closing the door behind her, she noticed that Jesse seemed to be pacing the hallway outside the room. He nodded to her as she walked by, but didn't say anything.

She wondered what was up with that.

'I hate all of this waiting,' Mercedes thought bitterly to herself as she walked aimlessly though the asylum. She'd checked everyone's injuries, so there was nothing else for her to do at the moment. 'Rachel would know what to do,' she thought, 'at least, she would pretend to and we would all go along with it. At least then we wouldn't all be sitting around doing nothing.'

Without warning, the sound of a gunshot tore through the silence.

Mercedes was overtaken by a sense of dread. That noise never meant anything good, and it had come from the basement.

The silence was officially broken as the sounds of people running filled the night. Everyone raced to the basement in morbid curiosity.

The question on everyone's mind being '_what idiot left their gun down there_?'

By the time Mercedes reached the basement, Mike and Blaine were already putting a sheet over the body.

"How did it happen?" she asked quietly, unable to make herself look at the body.

"He shot himself," Kurt whispered from behind her. "He wanted to die rather than become a zombie. Since none of us could do it, so I brought him his handgun."

Mercedes turned to find the boy staring at the floor. Despite the tears in his eyes, he seemed oddly at ease with what had happened.

He winced and jerked away when she laid her hand on his arm. She looked at the boy in surprise, but despite the tears streaming down his face, he shook his head 'no'. He didn't want to be comforted.

Begrudgingly, she let it go, chocking it up to being just one more way that the apocalypse had changed the dynamics of their little group.

"We're ready," Mike said quietly. He and Blaine had carefully wrapped the body in sheets, and there was only the slightest tinge of blood around one end to indicate what had occurred. The two carefully hauled the body upstairs.

As the group passed Rachel's room, Mercedes noticed that the door was open and that the girl was now awake and sitting up. She felt sorry for Puck, who was trying to explain what had happened, and had to hold the girl down as they passed with the body.

Standing outside in the hallway, she could tell the exact moment when Puck told Rachel that Finn had been bitten during the battle. The girl suddenly wrapped her arms tightly around the boy's neck, and buried her face in his shoulder, where her entire body shook with her sobs.

Feeling as though she were intruding on an intimate moment, Mercedes nodded again to the boy with the mohawk, and turned to leave.

"She's awake," she murmured to the others when she joined them in the woods beneath a large oak tree where Jesse, Blaine and Mike were digging a hole.

There hadn't been enough of Quinn left to bury, but they all wanted to make sure that Finn was buried in a respectful, if not proper manner.

"When it rains, it pours," Artie sighed vaguely; referring to the way that difficult situations just seemed to keep piling up.

"That about sums it up, Artie," Rachel agreed as she and Puck joined the group once the hole was ready.

The girl was pale, and she looked as though one good punch would be the end of her, but Mercedes could tell that something had changed. In the time that had passed since she'd seen her crying in Puck's arms, Rachel seemed to have steeled herself against the world. Somehow, despite having to lean heavily on Puck, and looking as though she'd just had herself a good cry, the girl looked strong, and ready to become their leader again.

Everyone grieved over the next few days. Things had been hard recently. With all of the recent zombie battles, it was hard to remember that those who'd died had been their friends. If they thought about it too much, it became overwhelming.

Rachel had stopped saying 'we'll get through it'.

Her new catch phrase: "we aren't dead yet."

It was good to have a reminder.

* * *

**Authors Note: Hey guys. I'm really sorry that it's been over two weeks since I've posted a chapter. Basically, last week was spring break, and so the week before that was completely insane with papers and tests. After that, I got really lazy during spring break, which I spent in a location with very poor internet access. I don't have much free time. Even now I should be sleeping, but I felt bad for not posting a chapter. Hope you guys are still enjoying this. Your reviews mean so much to me. Really, you don't even know the half of it.**

**Another note: We're just going to assume that Gandalf wandered off and got eaten sometime during a scene that I didn't describe, 'kay? I had some interesting ideas for him, such as having one of his personalities be a teenage girl named Rainbow who can't understand why Jesse won't take her to the prom, but there's no way I can fit that into the story now.**

**So yeah, concluding the longest authors note ever, **

**REVIEW! (excessive punctuation)!**

**Peace Out!**


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